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Digging in the heart of the reconstructed post of Michilimackinac. The excavation of the east end of the South Southwest Row House, shown here, began in 1998.

Every child fantasizes occasionally about becoming a soldier and accomplishing
great deeds in battle. Or at least I did. After all, armies and the fortifications
they occupy have helped to determine the destiny of nations, and the modern
cultures, languages, and worldviews of the North American continent were
shaped during the colonial wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
As children, we are exposed to mind-numbing lists of dates for battles,
victories, and treaties, along with the names of forts, generals, and patriotic
heroes, all of which seem very remote from us. But as adults we come to
realize the significance of those distant events in shaping our modern regional,
national, and ethnic identities, and then we discover that the sites of
long-ago battles can still be visited. Hundreds of forts and battlefields
have been excavated, interpreted, and oftentimes reconstructed, and millions
of visitors each year are able to appreciate how very near to them the past
can be.

Most of these military reconstructions and open-air interpretations required
archaeologists to put in years of archival research, excavation, and artifact
analysis. Many of the early engineers' drawings of forts and battlefields
are highly schematicized or incomplete, with ordinary soldiers' huts, lookout
posts, and latrines rarely depicted, and with many details not drawn to
scale. The surviving construction plans for forts were typically drawn before
laborers began to build the walls, and thus French, British and Spanish
forts that have been reconstructed without the use of archaeology tend to
be woefully inaccurate.

Military sites archaeology is unquestionably one of the most popular and
dynamic subfields of historical archaeology, attracting millions of annual
visitors to reconstructed sites. No doubt this level of interest is due
to the dramatic, even catastrophic, events that occurred at many military
sites, and these were certainly seminal in shaping the direction of the
nations that formed in North America. But past glories or disasters on the
battlefield or ramparts are not the greatest thrill for the archaeologist:
rather, the real excitement comes from examining the lives of soldiers and
officers who have not had a voice until now, yet who left us with a rich
record of hut outlines and fireplaces, latrines, garbage-filled wells, wine
bottles, exploded mortar shells, armament, and more. These are the pieces
from which we can reconstruct a bit of their humanity, and perhaps our research
will help to honor the early soldiers who made sacrifices under extremely
harsh frontier conditions.

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The author discusses the fortress's history, with the historical play-acting
that takes place each year during the spring. More than thirty-five years
of archaeological research have made possible this world-class heritage
experience.

This is the fortified settlement built by the French in the early 1700s
to protect the French Fur trade in the region. Each year, an archaeological
team returns to the site to excavate while visitors watch as the past
gets uncovered before their eyes.

About the Contributor:

Lu Ann De Cunzo is Associate Professor of Anthropology
at the University of Delaware.